If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Drivers rant

I use old notebooks to take to work, for internet access, and occasionally to run a crew bill estimate program on Excel. I've lost two in just over two years to damaged screens in falls (or being run over) from a bike, so I need to keep them cheap. Currently they are Thinkpad X31 and T41's. Recent changes in the routers and router conifg at the two theatres I work at most frequently have forced me to upgrade the wireless cards from B to G. I've acquired several mini-PCI wireless G cards, Broadcom and Intel. Intel card in the T41 is working fine but the Broadcom card in the X31 that I want to use most of the time is connecting and getting good signal strength but can't load a page.
It's been a learning process. The Broadcom card was set by default in the Advanced settings to B only and I thought I'd finally found the issue. No. Searching for drivers for an Intel 2915 A/B/G card to replace the Broadcom led me to a posting that Intel has not made Win7 drivers for those cards. I had already considered that the issue with the Broadcom card might be a Win7 driver. The X31 is on 7 Enterprise, the T41 on XP. But the EOL for XP means I'll have to consider another solution. I've bought a usb wireless dongle but on a laptop that has to live in a backpack this is not a very good solution. Going to investigate linux drivers for the old cards and a dual boot for Excel, but I'm not happy about this.

Neither MS or the hardware manufacturers are standing behind their customers.

Troubling news, Shinma. Intel had been outstanding in providing driver support, as evidenced by their wireless drivers for linux. They just announced something a day or two ago about an expectation of reduced sales. Might be related.

Updated info

More fully discussed in this post, but after finding a new driver, the Broadcom card is working at a location with new routers and the Intel card that works at a location with older routers does not work at the location with the new routers.